Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The status of the parent must be updated at the beginning of the specification.
The lined out IDS item was not provided in either the parent or instant application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-14 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He 2017/0029615 in view of the Li article in Earth and Environmental Sciences and CN103923442.
He exemplifies (#SN25) a blend of 47.2 PBT (ie applicant’s crystalline polymer), 15%SLX (ie applicant’s polycarbonate having isophthalate-terephthalate-BPA units see paragraph 35; table 3 of applicant’s specification), 30% glass fiber, 2% ethyene/EA copolymer (ie applicant’s impact modifier), 3% ethylene/EA/GMA terpolymer (ie applicant’s impact modifier, 2.5% polyetherester, 0.2% heat stabilizers (ie applicant’s additional additives) and zinc phosphate.
This example lacks basalt fibers.
However, basalt fibers are known to have lower dielectric constants (Dk) than conventional glass fiber. See table 4 of the Li article. Basalt fibers are also known as reinforcement for PBT compositions and provides some better mechanical properties than conventional glass (see paragraph 6 of CN103923442).
He (paragraph 2) is concerned with the composition’s overall dielectric properties.
It would have been obvious to substitute He’s conventional glass fibers with basalt fibers to lower the Dk as well improve some mechanical properties of He’s PBT composition. Lowering Dk is the effect applicant desires (see examples).
In regards to applicant’s dependent claims:
Both Li (page 4) and CN’442 (paragraph 16) teach continuous basalt fiber – meeting applicant’s claim 3.
Claim 5 is met as the claim does not require the polyolefin’s presence, but instead merely limits what qualifies as applicant’s polyolefin in the Markush group of claim 4.
The properties of applicant’s claims 8-11 are expected to be met by He’s modified composition as the modified composition meets all of applicant’s material limitations. It appears even He’s exemplified composition (employing glass fiber instead of basalt fiber) meets these properties (see applicant’s C1.2).
He’s composition is useful in electronics (paragraph 8) – meeting applicant’s claims 12 and 14.
The composition may be molded by NMT (paragraph 80) which is injection molding upon a metal surface (paragraph 1) – meeting applicant’s claim 13.
Claims 1-14 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng WO2019/130269 in view of the Li article in Earth and Environmental Sciences and CN103923442.
Peng exemplifies (#21) a low Dk blend of 45.4% PBT(s) (ie applicant’s crystalline polymer), 15% POLY3, 15% glass fiber, 15% glass spheres, 3% IM (ie applicant’s impact modifier), 6% IM2 (ie applicant’s impact modifier) and 0.6% stabilizers/antioxidants etc.
POLY3 (table 1) is SLX9010 (ie applicant’s polycarbonate having isophthalate-terephthalate-BPA units see paragraph 35; table 3 of applicant’s specification).
This example lacks basalt fibers.
However, basalt fibers are known to have lower dielectric constants (Dk) than glass fiber. See table 4 of the Li article. The low Dk glass fiber of Peng’s cited example has a Dk of 4.5 (see table 1). Li (table 4) shows basalt fibers have a Dk 2.61.
Basalt fibers are also known as reinforcement for PBT compositions and provides some better mechanical properties than conventional glass (see paragraph 6 of CN103923442).
It would have been obvious to substitute Peng’s low Dk glass fibers with even lower Dk basalt fibers to lower the composition’s Dk as well improve some mechanical properties of Peng’s PBT composition. Lowering Dk is the effect applicant desires (see examples).
In regards to applicant’s dependent claims:
Both Li (page 4) and CN’442 (paragraph 16) teach continuous basalt fiber – meeting applicant’s claim 3.
IM is ethylene/MA/GMA – meeting applicant’s claim 4.
IM2 is SBS (table 1) – meeting applicant’s claims 4 and 5.
The properties of applicant’s claims 8-11 are expected to be met by Peng’s modified composition as the modified composition meets all of applicant’s material limitations. It appears even Peng’s exemplified composition prior to modification (employing glass fiber instead of basalt fiber) meets claim 10’s Dk.
The composition may be molded by NMT to form electronics (paragraph 2,3,151) – meeting applicant’s claims 12-14.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID J BUTTNER whose telephone number is (571)272-1084. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-3pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Heidi Kelley can be reached at 571-270-1831. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DAVID J BUTTNER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1765 12/1/25